The present invention relates to packages generally used for the display of consumer goods on store shelves, and more particularly, to a transparent, reclosable package in book-like form, which may be repeatedly unfolded and reclosed in the store prior to purchase to permit visual examination of the packaged goods.
It is a common practice in self-service, minimum service and/or retail department stores to display goods provided in packaging which is attractive, durable enough to withstand shipping, which provides easily understandable information about the product and which protects the product from damage or theft by consumers.
In order to accomplish these objectives, retailers request and often demand that manufacturers provide goods in packaging which is designed to meet specific standards. In many cases, various forms of rigid, transparent, thermoformed plastic packages have been developed to achieve these goals. These include spherical, cubic or product-shaped plastic blisters which are secured to cards containing attractive graphics and product information. A major drawback of blisters is that the portion of the product directly opposite the graphic card is often not clearly visible to the consumer. An alternative package to blister and card combinations is a clam-shell blister, which provides substantially complete visibility of the product, but in this case, the graphics and product information must often be placed on a card which projects from the package and is easily disfigured or dislodged during shipping and/or handling by consumers, forcing the store owner to remove many products from the shelves merely because the packaging has been damaged through mishandling. A further disadvantage common to blister/card and clamshell blister packages is that they are often incapable of standing self-supported or in stacked fashion on a shelf, and must be hung from pegs on a wall. This limits the methods of product display, which are often critical to achieve marketing objectives.
In some product packaging applications, the above-identified disadvantages of conventional packages have been addressed by the use of a bifold clamshell package, which may be characterized as a clamshell blister split along a vertical plane into symmetrical front and rear portions and having a triangular side view configuration. The triangular configuration provides a relatively wide and stable base which enables the package to be self-supporting. Although the bifold package successfully resolves one disadvantage of conventional rigid plastic packaging, bifold packages still are inconvenient to stack for shipping due to the triangular shape and usually have minimum planar space for the display of graphic material. Furthermore, when packaging products in kit form or including a plurality of components and hardware, bifold clamshell packages do not allow for consumer visibility of many of the components. Alternatively, in packages where those components are visible, usually only one side is available for pre-purchase inspection. In addition, if the bifold package is split along its planar seam for inspection, the package components may escape from the package or may be easily pilfered.
Thus, there is a need for a rigid plastic package which is attractive, durable enough to withstand normal shipping, has a shape which facilitates packing, provides good visibility of substantially all sides of the package, is theft resistant, provides adequate planar surfaces for graphics and is self-supporting for display on store shelves.